As a kid, you may have dreamed a lot about the great outdoors; things like snow-covered Rocky Mountain peaks, raging rivers, and giant wild animals. Your dreams and imagination could take you to places you have never seen before, but in your mind, it feels so familiar, having those thoughts of hiking to the summit of a snow-covered mountain, or setting up a makeshift tent and camping in the wild to see how long you could last.
As you get older, maybe in your teens, you might dream of hiking miles across a mountain range chasing a bull elk or even my favorite, an encounter with a grizzly bear! What boy hasn’t had that dream?! Hell, I told a story to my kids for years when they were little about fighting a grizzly bear with just my two hands. It still makes me smile and laugh when I look at the scar on my chest. It wasn’t really from a fight with a bear…
But these are the things a young boy thinks about. He dreams about being bigger and stronger. He dreams about being the toughest person in the world and taking on any challenge his mind might create. At some point in your life as a young man, you might have even come across the adventures of Lewis and Clark. If so, reading about their experiences was probably a lot like throwing gas on a raging wildfire. You would reach your limit of imagination and start putting plans on paper.
Over the years, as our kids got older, we would have the ability and time to take on some of these challenges. Several of these stories you might have read about in past articles. Kayaking the Devils River, hunting the mountains of New Mexico and Colorado, South Texas camping and hunting, etc. But until recently, I haven’t really recognized the places from my dreams as a kid. Don’t get me wrong, I am blessed to have accomplished so much as an outdoorsman, but there was something missing… Last month, my wife and I booked a vacation for just the two of us for our anniversary. We were headed to Wyoming to see the famous Yellowstone Park. I had no idea the scale of creation I was about to witness.
As soon as we landed in Cody, we rented a Four Runner and headed to town. First stop, the Irma Hotel and cold beer. If you didn’t know, this was Buffalo Bill Cody’s place, built around 1902. Seemed like an appropriate little gem to start. If you have an imagination, this place will make you feel like you just jumped off a horse-drawn wagon coming through town for a quick stop off the trail. The walls are covered with animals harvested in these mountains and around the world, creaky old hardwood floors, Victorian-style decorative carpeted halls, and tall ceilings. Sitting in the bar, you can see into a fancy dining room, which was once the main gallery. I sat there thinking about what it might be like to have walked through that door in the early 1900s. Maybe someone was playing a piano in the background while the bartender was serving drinks to an ornery crowd of cowboys.
Over the next few days, Denise and I would drive all over northern Wyoming and southern Montana. We packed a couple of fly rods, drinks, and snacks, and left any expectations or timelines behind. It was incredible! One of our first stops was off Chief Joseph Hwy at Dead Indian Pass. There was a trailhead off to the left of the road we parked at. Denise and I grabbed our rods and hiked our way up the trail, looking for a good spot to make some casts. The river bank was lined with tall pine trees so dense we had to search for an opening large enough to accept our novice back casts. I watched as my wife stood on a fallen pine overhanging the river, casting a fly rod with a smile on her face and a genuine sense of tranquility. As we walked back towards the truck, we found our first sign of grizzly bears. There was a large rock with scrapings of a massive set of claws running down it. There was no question that this was a brown bear. We made our way back, sat there, and enjoyed a beer before we hit the road. The rest of the day, we would stop at waterfalls, fish small ponds, sight-see at mountain passes, have a drink at a random bar in Montana where they race pigs, watch pronghorn in the prairies, and talk… just the two of us.
We decided to commit a full day to driving around Yellowstone. So, we woke up early and headed toward the east entrance. I had no idea what to expect. We followed a winding road through a beautiful mountain valley that took us through tunnels dug into the mountainsides. Arriving at the gates, I wasn’t necessarily impressed, but I wasn’t let down either. It seemed like a pretty standard entry. Nothing extravagant like a theme park. No large gates or fences. Thank God!
Almost as soon as we started down the road, we came across two of the biggest bull elk I have ever personally seen. They sat in the shade, yawning and waiting for the heat of the day to pass. It was hard to drive away from this; I have never had the time to study these animals so close. We continued on, stopping to see trophy-sized mule deer and herds of buffalo. I didn’t think the buffalo would impress me like they did. When you see this many buffalo within feet of you, you can hear them breathe, see the dust blow up around their hooves, and feel their steps. A boy might stop and imagine a stampede of hundreds running across a prairie with Indians on horseback giving chase. What would it be like to survive a winter up here with nothing but buffalo blankets and a campfire? Could I shoot from horseback and keep up with the chase? No, but when I was a kid, I knew I could! We would pass the largest lake I have ever seen, countless waterfalls, beautiful pastures, and mountainside views that would leave you with your mouth hanging open. Around lunch, we made our way to Old Faithful. Once we arrived, we grabbed a Bloody Mary and a cold IPA from the lodge. We both didn’t know what to expect, so when we saw multiple geysers around us, steaming and randomly shooting hot water into the sky, we were left in awe. Denise and I sat on a park bench, and together we watched and marveled as Old Faithful erupted. It was so beautiful! As we drove away, we would pass several areas with vibrant blue ponds and rocks with steam bellowing out. I couldn’t believe what I was seeing! As the sun started to set, we had to begin our hour drive back. Denise had been secretly waiting to see a grizzly bear, but they never made their appearance. We talked on the way out and decided that would be our excuse to come back. It wasn’t ten minutes later that we saw a couple of vehicles stopped on the road, so we followed suit.
There he was! Standing tall and foraging on berries. Only about 30-50 yards away, the entire thirty minutes or so we watched him. His claws were massive. Bigger than I had ever imagined and reminiscent of the movie “The Great Outdoors”. He was a mixture of medium brown and silver, moving from bush to bush, then making his way to the river for a drink. Sitting here, I am trying my best to articulate this magnificent creature in the most amazing piece of earth I have ever seen with my own two eyes, but I cannot do it the justice it deserves. I looked at my wife, and she had tears running down her face.
This land is everything kids dream of. It holds every challenge a man could ever want. I told my wife how it’s like God looked down and said, “Do you want to see what I can do? Do you want to see what true, magnificent beauty looks like? Do you want to see an earthly level ten? Behold, Yellowstone Park.”
Our hearts were left full. We couldn’t really grasp everything we had just seen. There was no noise; just us and God’s incredible creation. We both left with the same feeling; we would give the clothes off our backs and sell what we owned to live this life and be a part of this greatness. One day, maybe we will. But if this is an example of Earth at its perfection, so to speak, can you imagine Heaven and what you would do to get there? Might want to start asking yourself that…
From the Texas outdoors: not every great outdoors story happens in Texas, but they all share the same thread. For one closer to home, Pearsall Texas 1962 takes you to a family ranch in Southwest Texas that’s been holding stories for generations. And for the feeling of a Texas season turning, The Pursuit captures it perfectly.
